Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Can't believe the title? I am still coming to terms with what I have just found out. Not sure if Microsoft has declared this in the Windows Mobile 6 feature list, or if I somehow didn't read the feature list properly and skipped over this much desired feature. 8O It is too good to be true. When Microsoft launched the Windows Mobile Smartphone edition, they decided not to include two ActiveSync related features that is available on the Pocket PC edition - file sync and Outlook notes sync. Now with the introduction of Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, one of this limitation has been removed. WooHoo! Figure 1: Here is the proof.In the above screen shot you can clearly see the item called "Files" in the ActiveSync synchronization list. I am using my Dash with Windows Mobile 6 upgrade, and Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 running on Windows XP. Now, here is the catch; if you are using Windows Vista you are out of luck. Vista's Windows Mobile Device Center does not support file synchronization. :( It does support media synchronization using Windows Media Player but not documents and other file types. Hopefully, Windows Vista users will see an update that will fix this and bring it on par with ActiveSync 4.5. Now that Windows Mobile 6 Standard (a.k.a. Smartphone) includes Office Mobile the file sync feature will prove handy for a lot of our readers. Interested in seeing some screen shots? Then continue reading after the break. Figure 2: During the first-time partnership setup process the user is greeted with this message. Click on the image for the legible version.Figure 3: Files synchronization is one of the options in the list, along with Contacts, Email and Calendar etc. Click on the image for the legible version. Figure 4: A shortcut icon is created on the desktop for the My Documents folder on the Windows Mobile device. Click on the image for the legible version.You can drag and drop files on to the desktop icon, and it will get copied to the My Documents folder on the mobile device's main memory. ActiveSync maintains a mirror image of the device's My Documents folder on the PC. That brings up another limitation, ActiveSync sets up the sync relationship with the My Documents folder in the main memory of the mobile device. I could not find a way to change it to the My Documents on the storage card. So if you have a lot of documents, or want to quickly and easily transfer media files over to the storage card then this file sync will not work for you. Regardless of this limitation, file sync is a welcome addition to the Windows Mobile 6 feature list. Thank you, Microsoft!

"It's slim, stylish and a mobile entertainment powerhouse. Includes 2 GB memory card, stereo headset, and $25 Sympatico / MSN Music Store gift card. Get the Motorola Q Music Edition by Bell for $129.95* when you subscribe to an Email, Internet and Voice plan."



Take one Motorola Q add a 2GB memory card and a $25 gift card to MSN Music store and you've got one of the new Bell Canada Motorola Q Music Edition devices. Anyone willing to sign up for a 3 year contract to save $25 on music?

Plantronics and Quiksilver have teamed up to deliver a new range of Bluetooth-enabled apparel, starting with two snow jackets (the Quiksilver Double Daffy, and Roxy Teen Angel) and two helmets (the Quiksilver Pulse, and Roxy Shiver) - all of which are media player- and mobile phone-friendly. Check out the press release and product images after the break.
Quiksilver and Plantronics Announce Partnership and New Limited Edition Sports Collection

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. and SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK - News) and Plantronics (NYSE: PLT - News) today kicked off a new strategic partnership to outfit outdoor sports enthusiasts with a unique array of Bluetooth� enabled sports apparel and accessories. Quiksilver and Plantronics also previewed a new collection of premium snow apparel and accessories providing wireless, high-performance stereo music and mobile phone communications today at the SIA conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.



The alliance represents an exciting fusion of industry trailblazers - Quiksilver, which includes the Quiksilver and Roxy brands, is known as a leader in the outdoor sports lifestyle industry. Plantronics is recognized as a leader of Bluetooth voice and stereo technology.

"We're thrilled to be working with Plantronics, a brand that has long been recognized as an industry leader in communications and entertainment," said Quiksilver CEO, Bob McKnight. "Our company has always sought new and innovative ways to enhance the outdoor lifestyle, and integrating Plantronics technology into our products is a great way to do that."

"This new premium line of Bluetooth equipped apparel and accessories creates a pure and seamless experience for sports enthusiasts - they can go from one environment to the next while staying continuously connected to their music and friends," said Renee Niemi, general manager and vice president of Mobile and Entertainment for Plantronics. "This new line also reflects Quiksilver and Plantronics' commitment to combining style, comfort and technology with great ease of use."

The new collection integrates Quiksilver's high-quality outdoor sports apparel with Bluetooth equipped mobile phones, iPods and MP3 players, allowing users to effortlessly access their favorite tunes and mobile calls without the worry of snagging a cord while blazing the slopes. Plantronics' technology, embedded within the Quiksilver apparel and accessories, enables stereo sound to stream wirelessly from compatible products so that users can play and control music as well as answer incoming calls - all at the touch of a button.

Designed for both men and women under the Quiksilver and Roxy brands, the inaugural collection of apparel and accessories will include:





-- Quiksilver Double Daffy Snow Jacket featuring Plantronics stereo sound and voice technology with Bluetooth�: The jacket is part of Quiksilver's Limited Edition Outerwear Collection and is both iPod and cell phone ready. The Double Daffy will be available in the 2007/2008 Outerwear season and will retail for $370.00 at Quiksilver Stores and better retailers nationwide.

-- Quiksilver Pulse Helmet featuring Plantronics stereo sound and voice technology with Bluetooth�: The lightweight helmet, constructed from injected ABS, has adjustable side vents and comes in a black camo print. The Pulse will be available in the 2007/2008 Outerwear season and will retail for $249.95 at Quiksilver Stores and better retailers nationwide.

-- Roxy Teen Angel Snow Jacket featuring Plantronics stereo sound and voice technology with Bluetooth�: iPod and cell phone ready, this jacket will be available in the 2007/2008 Outerwear season and will retail for $340.00 at Quiksilver Stores and Roxy retailers nationwide.

-- Roxy Shiver Helmet featuring Plantronics stereo sound and voice technology with Bluetooth�: The Shiver Roxy Women's Ski/Snow Safety Helmet will be available in the 2007/2008 Outerwear season and will retail for $249.95 at Quiksilver Stores and Roxy retailers nationwide.

Quiksilver will provide a sneak peek of the first co-developed products at the SIA conference in Las Vegas, Nevada (January 22-25, 2007), booths #C700 and #C800.

"Ok� It looks like it's finally here. The false-start in December where the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition folks pulled the downloads has past. Also, me jumping the gun last week and posting the download URLs before the "official" release is over. I checked with the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition folks on Friday to confirm that it was OK to post the links today (15-January-2007) and they said today is the official release so I should feel free to post the links. So after all that, SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and all of the related tools are "live and in color". Enjoy it. The added desktop support now gives us a lightweight, in-process (no server process) database for both desktop and Windows Mobile. Just as important, the database format is compatible so moving a database between a desktop computer and a Windows Mobile device is a simple file copy."



SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition enables the developers to have a compact embedded database for their mobile applications for tablet PCs, Pocket PCs, Smartphones and also regular Windows desktops. Check out the official Microsoft home page for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition over here for more information.

"A while ago, when .NetCF v1 wasn't released yet, we could only guess what kind of applications our customers would build. People on the team were coming up with various ideas of mobile applications they would like to build on top of our platform and try to figure out which platform features would be most valuable. We had application building days, when everyone on the team would go and work only on their personal application projects. ... We are bringing a subset of WCF (Windows Communication Foundation, formerly known as Indigo) to devices. WCF provides a new unified programming model for building connected applications with managed code. The cool thing I like the most about WCF is its' extensible channel architecture. It allows building applications that can work on top of completely different transports and protocol channel stacks. Using WCF programming model, now I can send and receive data in my application equally easily using HTTP, TCP or e-mail."



I have been trying hard to catch up on the Windows Communication Foundation on Windows Vista but now I will have to speed up the process because Windows Mobile will soon be getting a subset of the WCF. Check out this article by Roman Batoukov to understand how it works, how it will make the developers life easy, and the inspiration for this programming library. ;-)

"PhatNotes Smartphone Edition is an advanced notes organizer for Microsoft Windows Mobile powered Smartphones and Desktop PCs. PhatNotes allows users to create notes and organize them by type, subject, creation and modification date. PhatNotes provides powerful text search, document security, and email capabilities. Interface to the Contacts Database enables quick access to email addresses and contact information."



Another one of my favorite applications joins the Q files. In fact the previous version of PhatNotes has been working well on my Q. If you are looking for a note application that also will sync with Outlook then give this a try.

"In our last newsletter we announced the release of HanDBase for Windows Mobile Smartphones. With new WM Smartphone devices coming out almost weekly, this platform is taking off fast, and no device in recent months has attracted more attention than the sleek and thin keyboard equipped Motorola Q phone. We're happy to announce that as of the latest release, HanDBase Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition is compatible with this extremely popular phone!"

The Q applications just keep coming. For all you HanDBase users (are there any here?) I'm pleased to tell you it now runs on the Q. Some screen shots would have been nice but there were none to be found. If anyone tries this please let us know what you think.

"Microsoft recently announced that it will be evolving the SQL Mobile product into a product named SQL Server Everywhere Edition. SQL Mobile is currently a database that you can use on "mobile" devices, which include Tablet PCs, Pocket PCs, and Smartphones. SQL Mobile differs from SQL Server in that with SQL Mobile, there is no "server" running as a background process. The engine for SQL Mobile consists of a handful of DLLs that you reference from your application. When you want to connect to a database, you just put the path to the database file in your connection string. In fact, working with SQL Mobile feels a lot like working with an Access/Jet database. The limitation for SQL Mobile, today, is that it will only run on "mobile" devices. In other words, you can't deploy an application that uses SQL Mobile to desktops or laptops."



SQL Everywhere is the new and improved version of SQL Mobile. SQL Everywhere enables a truly portable database file that can be moved between the desktop, the laptop, the Tablet PC and the Windows Mobile device. It is as easy to code and deploy as Microsoft Access. Scott Swigart has written an introductory article about SQL Everywhere on MSDN that can help you in getting started.

"Call To Contact allows you to easily add new phone numbers to existing phone contacts with just a few clicks. When an incoming phone call is received, Call To Contact checks to see if that number is already associated with one of your contacts. If not, Call To Contact will prompt you to add the number once the phone conversation finishes."



Here is a handy little application I have seen calls for from time to time. Best of all it is FREE! It does require the Compact Framework 2.0 be installed but as we all know that can now reside on a storage card. :)

"Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition (SQL Server Everywhere) is designed for developers who need light weight, in process relational database solution for their applications that can be developed and deployed on desktop as well as on mobile devices. The SQL Server Everywhere CTP contains the runtime bits that can be used to develop and deploy applications on desktop only. The RTW of SQL Server Everywhere will contain the device support for developing and deploying applications on mobile devices. SQL Server Everywhere CTP is a powerful tool that makes it easy to develop desktop applications by supporting familiar Structured Query Language (SQL) syntax and providing a development model and API consistent with SQL Server."



Microsoft is announcing the availability of the Community Technical Preview of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition just before Tech�Ed 2006, the largest annual customer conference for IT Pros and developers. The Everywhere Edition is the new version of a feature rich compact database that was previously called SQL Server CE. The new edition provides a reliable and better performing database engine, it offers improved synchronization, and integrates with SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. To learn the details of what's new in this edition and how to use this new mobile database, download the SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition Books Online from here. Developers who are eager to get cracking on the mobile database will have to wait a bit longer to test it on their mobile devices, because the current CTP version supports the database on only the Windows Desktop, the mobile version is not available in this CTP release. :?

In celebration of MEDC, this weeks Gigantic Giveaway Event item is Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition. If you're not a developer or you have no interest in developing, then this is not the prize for you. ;) We've got one copy to giveaway and to win it all you need to do is reply to this thread and let us know why you should win this prize. :) You have until 11:59pm (PST) on Monday May 15th to enter. Winners will be randomly selected from the responses and announced on the following Wednesday.



"Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition is a comprehensive, high productivity professional development environment (for devs working alone or in small teams) for building high performance, multi-tier applications for Windows, the Web, and mobile devices. With Visual Studio 2005, professional developers can:

� Create multi-tier Windows, Web, SmartPhone, and Pocket PC based applications
� Integrated Visual Database Tools for designing databases, tables, stored procedures, and more
� Integrated database report designer and viewer
� Design, debug, and deploy multi-tier applications
� Integrated XSLT debugging"

"Full integration of SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition with SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 provides a platform for developers to rapidly build applications that extend enterprise data management capabilities to mobile devices."



Developing applications that revolve around databases is now easy thanks to the new SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition. Visit the SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition page on MSDN. You will find resources to quickly develop mobile applications that can manage data on the go. If you are not familiar with the SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, then check out this page. :-) This database engine is a big improvement over the previous version, the SQL Server CE. And it is supported on Pocket PC 2003, Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone.

"Soon you'll be able to carry around a real version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The mobile edition has been created by the BBC rather than "the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor" who, in Douglas Adams' book, created the original. The portable edition contains 7,000 articles from the H2G2 site covering life, the Universe and everything. Owners of smartphones and handheld computers will be able to access the guide while they are out and about."

Do we have any Guide fans here? I'm sure a fair number of you are interested in carrying a copy with you on your Smartphone. :D Oh, and in case you haven't heard, the movie version of the Guide is due out in about 2 weeks. :wink:

Last Friday I got ahead of things and announced the new version of Personal Vehicle Manager from Two Peaks. The problem was that the Smartphone version wasn't quite ready. Two Peaks were still working on getting the application signed. I am now happy to report that the application has been signed and it's now ready for you to enjoy!

To top it off, Two Peaks has offered up 10 licenses for Smartphone Thoughts readers! So, over the next couple days you have a chance to win your own copy of Personal Vehicle Manager. All you need to do is reply to this thread and tell us what vehicle you have (or are dreaming about owning), and let us know what feature you like the most about that vehicle. If you like, you're more than welcome to post a picture of it too. :) You have until the end of day Friday (March 25th) to get your entry in. The 10 lucky winners will be randomly selected from the responses to this thread.

You can download a trial version, or if you can't wait to see if you'll win, then you can purchase a full copy for $24.95 here. A big Thank You goes to Two Peaks for such a generous offer. [Affiliate]

"Bitstream Inc. is intoducing the ThunderHawk 2.0 Smartphone Edition. With ThunderHawk, browsing the Web on a Smartphone is similar to browsing on the desktop because ThunderHawk includes functionality that enhances the user experience, including a faster scrolling, increased browsing speed and multiple viewing options."



I was excited to see this because I can't stand the built in browser on my phone. There is a trial version available here. I just can't get this to work! I can't get past the registration screen. I'd be interested to know if anyone else is having the same trouble.

"PhatNotes Smartphone Edition allows users to easily create, search, and sort text-based notes on both their Windows Mobile-based Smartphones and Windows-based desktop PCs. Users can also synchronize notes between the two platforms, giving them a powerful way to manage and access personal information on-the-go. Notes can be sorted and organized by category, date or subject, and password protection is available for notes that need to be secured. "By supporting Windows Mobile 2003 software for Smartphone and new networks like Orange, we provide even more consumers the opportunity to keep their lives organized with this award-winning software," said Stan Miasnikov, president of PhatWare Corporation. PhatNotes has been awarded Pocket PC Magazine's "Best Notes Software" for four consecutive years, beginning in 2001. Tested and certified with the Designed for Windows Mobile for Smartphones logo, PhatNotes' features include Desktop PC notes synchronization, Microsoft Outlook support, hyperlinks between notes, multiple notes database support with tree-like views, hierarchical notes organizer, customizable views, user reminders and more."



PhatWare has released a new version of PhatNotes for Windows Mobile based Smartphones. You can download a trial version, or purchase a copy for $29.95 here.

"Awarded "Best Product of the Year" IntelliGolf� just got better. The IntelliGolf Eagle edition includes support for GPS, Bluetooth, and all 7 S�s of Golf. View distances and track shots from tee-to-green with GPS accuracy. Automate golf scoring and wagering. Evaluate performance statistics and graphs for an unlimited number of rounds, players and courses. Approximate your handicap. Keep caddie-style notes. Handheld, Windows PC, and Sync-compatible software are all included. IntelliGolf: Golf�s #1 Scoring Software� in 100+ countries worldwide! With the IntelliGolf Eagle edition, now you can access and download any of our 20,000+ signature courses directly to your PC and/or handheld, for use with IntelliGolf. Round set-up is a breeze! Hole yardages, par ratings, hole handicaps, and GPS coordinates are all included. Plus, course downloads are FREE for IntelliGolf users and are less than 5Kb in size."



I'm not much of a golfer, but this app looks so cool I might have to install the trail and go out for round to test it out. Well, maybe once the snow clears up. :wink: You can download the trial, or purchase a copy for $49.95 here. [Affiliate]

"HTTPMail Provider is an add-on software for smartphone outlook that allows you to download e-mail from Hotmail, MSN or Lycos accounts. There's no need to run separate software on your desktop to enable e-mail synchronization, the only requirement is that you have an internet connection. HTTPMail Provider offers enhanced NLS (National Language Support) by using the same internationalization engine as Internet Explorer and other Windows CE core applications. You can send and receive e-mails in most languages, including the ones with non-latin alphabets such as Japanese, Chinese and Russian."



This application won't give you HTML based email. HTTPMail is a protocol that is very similar to IMAP, but it is considered a light weight version for web based email. HTTPMail Provider requires an unlocked 2002, 2003, or 2003 SE phone. You can download a trial version, or purchase the complete application for $6.99 here. [Affiliate]

Geekzone has an excellent article that discusses the roadmap of developer tools from Microsoft. Microsoft is about to package its Visual Studio into more editions and thereby better offer developers a product that more precisely their needs. Today, it is more or less one-size-fits-all approach. The interesting aspect from a Smartphone point of view is the announcement of Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition.

"Microsoft Corp. has announced Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, a development tool for line-of-business application developers building Windows, Web or mobile applications."

This is good news for all the developers that are interested in getting started with .NET Compact Framework development but don't have the cash to buy today's Enterprise Edition. Follow the link to learn more about the different editions!

If you like what you read in Mike's review of the Mitac 8390, you're really going to like this: the 8390 limited edition bundle. As of July 23rd, there were only 100 units left (of 500 total), and they're expected to ship on August 13th. The price? $569.28 USD. That's cheaper than an iMate 2 Smartphone, and check out what you get:

� Mio 8390 - Limited Edition as seen in August Editions of Stuff, Focus and Computershopper
� Value Add Software (GPRS Monitor, SMS Sync for Outlook, Scientific Calculator, Device Backup), Space Odyssey, Snails and 7 other titles, GPRS
MMS Settings. Lock / Unlock untilites, English Dictionary
� Special Presentation Box
� Wharefdale Loudman Portable Speakers and Batteries
� Spare Battery (860mA standard and 750mA)



If you've been waiting for a SIM-free, unlocked Smartphone running Windows Mobile 2003 that you can use on any GSM network, this is great deal. Order one today. :way to go: [Affiliate]